The vice chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) has declared that Republicans are now seen as the party that best represents the working-class.
The not-so-proud proclamation came from Vice Chair Ken Martin Friday, during what amounted to an undressing of his own party on The Lead with Jake Tapper.
There, the 51-year-old chair of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party pointed to complacency within the progressive party, while citing research that showed the shifting tide.
He told Tapper: ‘For the first time, the majority of Americans believe that the Republican Party best represents the interests of the working class and the poor,’
‘[A]nd the Democratic Party represents the interests of the wealthy and the elite.’
‘That is a damning indictment on our party brand,’ he continued. ‘And that’s something we have to figure out as we move forward.
‘How we actually reconnect our very popular policy ideas which are passing in ballot initiatives throughout this country back to our party and candidates,’ he pondered, before ultimately concluding, ‘Because that’s not happening.
‘We gave to do a better job there.’
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The admission was a major one, as it openly conceded the president-elect’s campaign was the one that ended up resonating with the working class.
The demographic has long been associated with the Democratic Party, which, for the better part of the past century, has platformed on liberal reforms and the interest of blue-collar workers.
However, as Martin indicated, the party’s labor union element has become smaller since the 70s – which itself was only a few years after the core bases of the parties experiences a shift that saw Northeastern states become more reliably blue.
Decades later, during the presidencies of Barack Obama and Joe Biden, the party would become more associated with a progressive economic agenda that contains elements of socialism, and more progressive views on cultural and social issues.
This political climate came together in a big way this month, though likely not in the manner most in Martin’s party had expected.
Months after installing Kamala Harris as a last-minute replacement, voters showed up overwhelming for Trump – many from places and demographics that voted Biden just four years before.
Four years of inflation and a yet-to-be-solved crisis surrounding the border were pegged as driving factors, as political pundits on both sides of the aisle seemingly realized in real-time how bipartisan politics were, in part, to blame for the result.
‘I’m going to speak some hard truths to my friends in the Democratic Party,’ CNN contributor Julie Roginsky said on the air two days after Trump obtained enough electoral votes to be named the next president.
‘This is not Joe Biden’s fault. ‘It’s not Kamala Harris fault,’ she continued. ‘It’s not Barack Obama’s fault. It is the fault of the Democratic Party in not knowing how to communicate effectively to voters.
‘We are not the party of common sense,’ she went on to declare. ‘[This] is the message that voters sent to us.’
University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s Álvaro J. Corral added of the result: ‘I think this is really a story of the headwinds that were obviously too much to overcome for Democrats structurally [and] with the economy’.
Other instances of on-air reflection have been seen – though, more often than not, personalities like Joy Reid have instead chose to use their platform to engage in on-air finger-pointing – often at members of their own party’s expense.
A week after the election, Reid embarked on a tirade that appeared to chide Latinos who had voted for Trump. Days before, the Republican had garnered 46 percent of the entire demographic – the most by any Republican in modern history.
‘While 91 percent of black women voted for [Harris], 53 percent of white women overall voted for Trump,’ an unrepentant Reid began, as both MSNBC and CNN have struggled with subpar ratings in recent weeks.
‘[This is] despite the open disrespect and demonization hurled by JD Vance and the Supreme Court stripping women’s bodily autonomy, courtesy of Donald Trump.
‘Latino men, who – despite the utter disrespect shown by Trump and his promise to deport some of your mixed-class, mixed-status families – most of them voted in a 55 percent majority to make the deportations happen,’ she added.
Speaking to Latino men who voted Trump directly, the ReidOut start said: ‘So you [better] own everything that happens to your mixed-status families and to your wives, sisters and abuelas from here on in.’
The warning was almost immediately criticized by progressive politicians, who chided Reid for seemingly causing more in-fighting in an already divided party.
‘Stop scapegoating, shaming, and scolding working-class Latinos,’ Rep. Ritchie Torres, the rep for New York’s 15th congressional district, sniped.
‘A patronizing paternalistic progressivism will not attract working-class Latino men back to the Democratic Party,’ he continued, pointing to the demeanor that’s seemingly become commonplace on MSNBC and CNN in the wake of the result.
‘It will repel them.’
Martin, on Friday, said Democrats should take the next few months to rebuild the party – by prioritizing ‘race[s] in every zip code’, and not just the presidential one.
Aside from taking the Presidency, Republicans recently obtained a majority in the House after flipping the US Senate.
The US Supreme Court, whose justices serve for life, is also predominantly Republican.